About Us

ASTRO ALL ASIA NETWORKS plc (ASTRO) is Malaysia’s leading cross-media group with a significant presence in DTH (Direct-To-Home) TV services and commercial radio. Astro, the subscription TV service commenced operations in 1996 with 22 channels and currently broadcasts over 100 pay-TV channels across Malaysia and Brunei, to over 2 million subscribers in four major languages.

Its state-of the-art digital broadcast facilities at the All Asia Broadcast Centre and at Cyberjaya multiplex has capability for digital TV, radio and data services on satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks, wireless telephony and the Internet.

ASTRO’s subsidiary, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, enjoys an exclusive 20-year license for satellite DTH transmission in Malaysia.

The Group is actively involved in origination, aggregation and distribution of content in Malay, Chinese, English and Indian languages, in addition to third party content. With over 24,000 first run hours of original multi-language content, the ASTRO Entertainment Network (AEN) encompasses more than 20 television channels across various genres, with plans to increase these in the near future to serve an ever evolving customer profile.

Of the top ten most watched channels in Malaysia, six are on the Astro platform. Astro’s in-house production, comprising entertainment, information and news programmes was close to 1700 hours in FY07.

The Group operates eight FM terrestrial radio stations in Malaysia, which include the top-ranking stations in key Malay, Chinese, Indian and English vernacular demographics. These stations cumulatively reach some 11 million listeners a week or half the total radio listeners in the country, and command a substantial proportion of the radio industry's advertising expenditure. In addition, it also packages 17 digital radio channels over the DTH platform.

Through its subsidiary Celestial Pictures, ASTRO owns the world’s largest Chinese film library and its digitally re-mastered films for release and distribution worldwide. It has successfully widened the global footprint of the Shaw Brothers’ pay-TV, home video and video-on-demand products with distribution deals across the world. To date, the Shaw Brothers titles have been distributed to over 100 countries on six continents with 530 titles released.

The Group is also a premier producer and distributor of Malay films and provides a platform for leading local producers and directors to hone their creative skills and capabilities in film production.

The Group published TV Guides and lifestyle magazines in Malaysia, including the country’s highest circulated entertainment magazine AstroView. It also shares a joint venture in Hong Kong with Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB). Through its subsidiary, Philippine Animation N.V Group, Philippine’s leading animation studio, the Group produces popular animated content.

ASTRO provides interactive TV services by aggregating and distributing multimedia content to a variety of users through the many communication and mobile devices available today. The Group’s focus on growing and creating innovative interactive content has seen exponential growth in transactions through its digital platform.

The Group is seeking to increase its participation in large under-penetrated economies that will benefit from the anticipated liberalisation of the media industry and the fast growing consumer sector, particularly in developing regions. Consistent with this objective, the Astro-branded subscription pay-TV service is currently available in Indonesia to over 100,000 subscribers, under a trademark license agreement. ASTRO has also invested in a joint venture to provide DTH satellite services in India. The Group is engaged in studio infrastructure and airtime sales and programming services for two radio stations in Kolkata, India, and is now looking to introduce this business model into other under-catered markets in neighbouring regions.

ASTRO listed on Bursa Malaysia in October 2003. Major shareholders of the Group include the Usaha Tegas Group (42.7%) and Khazanah Nasional Berhad (21.6%), the investment arm of the Malaysian Government.

ASTRO ALL ASIA NETWORKS plc
http://www.astroplc.com